Wikipedia:Naming conventions (Austria)

This style page summarises Wikipedia "good practice" for Austria pages.

The choice of a style does not mean that other conventions are worse, or wrong. The sole purpose is to enable consistency among a large number of Wikipedia articles. Completed Wikipedia articles should mention the fact that other usages exist and in which contexts they are preferred.

Where applicable this style guide draws on the Country Compendium (PDF) issued by the European Commission's Directorate-General for Translation.

In general, for reasons of stylistic and regional consistency, the variety of English used in Austria articles is that which is recommended by the Directorate-General for Translation in the European Commission in their English style guide (PDF), i.e. the standard usage of Britain and Ireland, usually referred to as British English.

For conventions associated with Germany articles see WikiProject Germany/Conventions.

Alphabet
The Wikipedia convention is to use the 30-letter German alphabet in proper names, in line with the broader Wikipedia convention of using local Latin alphabets. It is helpful to explain near the top of an article how to convert a name to the 26-letter alphabet.

Personal names
Where an English form of name for a king or prince is in common use, Wikipedia employs that as the headword for an article. Within the article, the German form should be mentioned at least once.

Wikipedia spells out names and does not employ German abbreviation systems whose significance is not understood in English, e.g. "v." for von.

Titles
Titles of historic royalty and contemporary family heads and their immediate family are translated into English in Wikipedia. The convention is to include the royal titles in headwords. This is set out at the naming conventions for royals, e.g. Frederick II, Duke of Austria.

Titles of contemporary persons who merely use the title as a consistent and de facto part of their surname are not translated in Wikipedia, e.g. Otto Graf Lambsdorff. This German-language word (not the English form) appears in the headword as if it were a regular surname.

Wikipedia translates and places ecclesiastical titles outside the name of the person, e.g. Archbishop Christoph Schönborn. This convention is set out at Naming conventions (clergy). The title is not part of the headword.

English names
In the absence of a common English name, the current local spelling of towns and cities, including any accents, is used by convention in Wikipedia e.g. Sankt Pölten. The exception is that Vienna is always used for Wien.

States and administrative regions
Wikipedia uses these English names for the federal states:


 * Carinthia
 * Lower Austria
 * Styria
 * Tyrol (federal state)
 * Upper Austria
 * Vienna

For the other federal states, Wikipedia uses an English name orthographically identical to the German name: Burgenland, Salzburg (federal state), and Vorarlberg

Geographic features
Wikipedia uses English names for other contemporary geographic features when the English usage is (1) universal or (2) the feature crosses language boundaries or (3) derived terms are in common use:
 * Alps (universal)
 * Alpine Foreland
 * Bohemian Forest (cross-border)
 * the Danube (cross-border)
 * the Gross Glockner
 * Lake Constance (universal)
 * the Rhine (cross-border, universal)

Natural regions
Wikipedia uses the names from authoritative English language geographical sources such as Rees (1974). . Some examples include:


 * Bohemian Forest (Böhmerwald)
 * Pannonian Plain or Carpathian Basin (Pannonische Tiefebene or Karpathenbecken)
 * Vienna Woods (Wienerwald)

Where no English source can be found, the conventions below, which are derived from authoritative sources, are applied if possible.

General guidelines for placenames
The 2 main rules are: "Use English" and "Use the original if there is no established English usage". However the use of compound nouns in German, where a proper noun and an ordinary noun are combined, complicates the issue. There is no simple answer, but the following guidance is based on the translation practice of place names in authoritative geographical sources, major dictionaries and tourist guides. There are 3 broad categories:

Group A
Use the original full German word, unless there is an accepted English equivalent:
 * Cities, towns and villages: Innsbruck, Klagenfurt; but Vienna for Wien. Disambiguation: use UK/US system e.g. Breitenau, Lower Austria; Münster, Tyrol.
 * Mountains and hills: Zugspitze, Wildspitze, Zuckerhütl. Disambiguation: use "(mountain)", "(hill)" or "(mtn range)" as appropriate e.g. Hoher Riffler (Zillertal Alps).
 * Valleys if not named after their river: Brixental, Windautal (the river is the Windauer Ache). Otherwise see Group B below.
 * Lakes: Traunsee, Wolfgangsee; but Lake Constance for Bodensee. It is also acceptable to use "Lake Town" e.g. Lake Neusiedl for Neusiedler See and Lake Zell for Zeller See.
 * Rivers: Schwarza (Leitha), Salzach; but Rhine for Rhein and Drava for Drau. Disambiguation: use "(river)" or "(river system)" e.g. Inn (river) or Vils (Lech).

Group B
Split the compound word, do not translate the proper noun, unless it has an accepted English equivalent, and translate the ordinary noun e.g. tal as "Valley" or talbrücke as "Viaduct":
 * Valleys: Rhine Valley for Rheintal, Inn Valley for Inntal. In the text it could also be rendered "valley of the Rhine". Usually capital "V" when it follows the proper noun. Exception: use the original word where it refers to a district or town, or where the valley is not named after the river e.g. Stubaital, qualified if necessary to the context e.g. the valley of Oberbergtal.
 * Bridges: Europa Bridge for Europabrücke
 * Viaducts: Lavant Viaduct for Talübergang Lavant
 * Ranges: Berchtesgaden Alps for Berchtesgadener Alpen; Kaiser Mountains for Kaisergebirge, depending on height/usage. NB "-gebirge" is often dropped in German anyway.
 * Mountain passes: Brenner Pass for Brennerpass, Plöcken Pass for Plöckenpass and Obdach Saddle for Obdacher Sattel.
 * Ravines and gorges: Leutasch Gorge for Leutaschklamm
 * Tunnels: Gleinalm Tunnel for Gleinalmtunnel
 * Glaciers: Hallstätter Glacier for Hallstätter Gletscher

Group C
Not compound nouns, but added for completeness. There are two words in German; leave the proper noun in the original, but translate the ordinary noun:
 * Dams: Zillergründl Dam for Sperre Zillergründl (but see "Reservoirs").
 * Reservoirs: Rappbode Reservoir for Talsperre Rappbode (NB Talsperre can refer to the dam or its associated reservoir)
 * Castles, palaces, mansions and country houses: Tratzberg Castle for Schloß Tratzberg, Vilsegg Castle for Burg Vilsegg. But beware; many Schlösser are palaces or country/mansion houses and some Burgen are really country houses and should be so-named.
 * Waterfalls: Krimml Waterfalls for Krimmler Wasserfälle

Additional guidelines

 * Adjectives: Convert to a noun, e.g. Krimml Waterfalls for Krimmler Wasserfälle, unless there is a recognised English adjective, e.g. Bavarian Forest for Bayerischer Wald
 * Hyphens: remove (in Groups B and C) unless they would be used in English, e.g. Theodor Heuss Bridge for Theodor-Heuss-Brücke, Main-Neckar Railway for Main-Neckar-Bahn
 * Original German name: For Groups B and C, the German name should be a redirect, should be included in the introduction and should be interwiki-linked
 * Word order: Prefer the English word order e.g. Vilsegg Castle (Burg Falkenstein) not "Castle Vilsegg"
 * Translation of Stadt: In Germany, a settlement is a Stadt if it has over 10,000 inhabitants. In 2009, there were 71 Städte. Unlike Germany there is no fixed definition of a Großstadt. However, for consistency and to avoid confusion over whether to translate Stadt as "town" or "city" in English:
 * For settlements with populations between 10,000 but under 100,000: translate as "town"
 * For settlements with populations of 100,000 or more (i.e. equivalent to a Großstadt in Germany): translate as "city". On this basis, Austria has five cities: Vienna, Graz, Linz, Salzburg and Innsbruck.

Universities and colleges
In line with most other national sections of Wikipedia, the headwords and links for Austrian universities are descriptive and short and take the form: University of Placename. Qualifiers such as "technical", patron names or provincial names should only be prefixed if there are multiple universities in the same town, e.g. Graz University of Technology; Vienna University of Economics and Business. The full name in German should be reproduced near the top of the relevant article. If the university claims an "official" English name, this should also be mentioned, though this may not be the same as the headword. Schools that do not confer doctorates should be termed colleges or schools in the headwords.

Administrative units
The translation of present-day administrative units (e.g. Länder, Kreise) should generally follow the recommendations of the Directorate-General for Translation of the European Commission, unless the context or other guidelines suggest otherwise. A summary of German terms and their English equivalent from the style guide is given below:


 * Bezirk: district or district authority. Bezirke in the Austrian administrative structure are only equivalent to Kreise in the German administrative structure. Austrian Bezirke have an average population of 84,613 persons, German Kreise an average population of 190,577).
 * Bundesland: province; see also Land.
 * Gemeinde: municipality, centered on a city (Stadt) or a town (Ort). Often combined as "Stadtgemeinde", "Ortsgemeinde (Austria)".
 * Land: state (Germany) or province (Austria).
 * Stadt: statutory city or city that has been granted the right to hold the status of city (often by population), see List of cities and towns in Austria
 * Ort or Ortschaft: town
 * Dorf: village
 * Siedlung: human settlement

Rail transport terminology
The following are examples of the main conventions used in rail transport. For further explanation and detail see the link above.
 * Railway lines between A and B: Rosenheim–Salzburg railway for Bahnstrecke Rosenheim–Salzburg
 * Named railway lines: Ausserfern Railway for Außerfernbahn and Enns Valley Railway for Ennstalbahn.
 * Railway stations: Neukirchen-Gampern railway station for Bahnhof Neukirchen-Gampern. Central stations, e.g. Linz Hauptbahnhof, are untranslated in the article name, but where there is usual English name used by the ÖBB, e.g. Linz Central Station, this should be included in the lede.

Company names are in title case e.g. Austrian Northwestern Railway or Austrian Federal Railways. Note that historical names are usually translated, whereas modern companies generally are not e.g. Stern und Hafferl Verkehr.

Disambiguation
In line with the general policies set out at Naming conventions (settlements), articles on places in Germany go under placename without any further higher-level division.

Where disambiguation among like-named places is still needed, specifiers from the native disambiguation system detailed below are used first. If there is no such specifier, the locality names go under placename, state (the "comma convention", where the name is followed with a comma, a space and the name of the state). Where disambiguation among entity types is needed, use Wikipedia's parentheses convention, e.g. Attersee and Attersee (lake).

River names are not used in Wikipedia as disambiguating terms for settlements, since their meaning, especially in the case of minor streams, is not intelligible to English-speaking readers outside Austria.